Hi everyone. I've moved into a new place and am really struggling to figure out how to set up my system within the constraints of the living room. I've attached a pic that should make the challenges pretty clear.
I'd like the sound to be coming toward the camera here so I can listen on my couch and also get decent sound in the dining room and kitchen (which were behind me while taking that picture). With the sliding doors (covered by the vertical blinds in the picture), that corner fireplace thing on the right, and the office space on the left, there's really no place for speakers on the desired wall. There's also no way to position speakers a few feet away from that wall since that would block access to our office space on the left.
The only solution I can see is to wall mount speakers at eye-level on either side of the sliding glass door. I currently have have a pair of Tannoy S1's which are ~4 feet high and weight a ton, so that also means new speakers. In terms of other gear, I think that I can put my amp on the "fireplace" (it's electric and stays pretty cool on top) and build a shelf for my turntable just above that.
None of this is ideal and I've been scratching my head for a better solution. So I thought I'd turn to the wisdom of the crowd here with two questions:
1) Does anyone have any other ideas for setting up a system in this room? and
2) If I go the wall-mount route, does anyone have suggestions for an established 2-way and affordable (~$200/pr) design that I could reconfigure to put in a wall mount box measuring no more than 24"H x 10"W x 5" D?
Thanks so much!
-Jeff
I'd like the sound to be coming toward the camera here so I can listen on my couch and also get decent sound in the dining room and kitchen (which were behind me while taking that picture). With the sliding doors (covered by the vertical blinds in the picture), that corner fireplace thing on the right, and the office space on the left, there's really no place for speakers on the desired wall. There's also no way to position speakers a few feet away from that wall since that would block access to our office space on the left.
The only solution I can see is to wall mount speakers at eye-level on either side of the sliding glass door. I currently have have a pair of Tannoy S1's which are ~4 feet high and weight a ton, so that also means new speakers. In terms of other gear, I think that I can put my amp on the "fireplace" (it's electric and stays pretty cool on top) and build a shelf for my turntable just above that.
None of this is ideal and I've been scratching my head for a better solution. So I thought I'd turn to the wisdom of the crowd here with two questions:
1) Does anyone have any other ideas for setting up a system in this room? and
2) If I go the wall-mount route, does anyone have suggestions for an established 2-way and affordable (~$200/pr) design that I could reconfigure to put in a wall mount box measuring no more than 24"H x 10"W x 5" D?
Thanks so much!
-Jeff
Attachments
I have a pair of Martin Logan Motion SLM wall mount speaker in my living room for general listening use. They actually sound pretty good (although no low bass as you can imagine). The speaker is remarkably thin (less than 2 inches thick!). Width is 6.5 inches.
Judging from the pic of your room, you might be able to mount one of these on either side of the vertical blinds and then add a sub somewhere to augment the low end.
If you wanted to DIY a solution like this, look at the Peerless slim line woofers:
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-5-woofers/peerless-gbs-135f25al02-04-5-slim-woofer/
and an AMT tweeter. I would just buy the commercial ones from Martin Logan and fugetabbouttit.
Judging from the pic of your room, you might be able to mount one of these on either side of the vertical blinds and then add a sub somewhere to augment the low end.
If you wanted to DIY a solution like this, look at the Peerless slim line woofers:
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-5-woofers/peerless-gbs-135f25al02-04-5-slim-woofer/
and an AMT tweeter. I would just buy the commercial ones from Martin Logan and fugetabbouttit.
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Oh man this is a hard problem. So where your camera currently is, I can't really think of a solution that wouldn't block off the glass door.
The only solution I can think of is moving the couch to where it is symmetrically placed facing into the 90 degree wall corner, then using wall mounted speakers. The problem here is that unless the wall mounted speakers are angled 45 degrees, you're listening 45 degrees off axis.
The best solution I can think of of a modification of Xrk's wall mounted TC9FD's. You could create enclosures that match the wall angle so that the drivers are radiating on-axis to the center of the couch. I would use foam core just as Xrk uses, then use Velcro to attach the speakers to the right wall and left glass door in a symmetrical stereo triangle.
This might create the problem that you can't open your glass door if it is a sliding glass door though. So maybe the best compromise is just some slim floorstanders with the couch moved?
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/277894-flat-wall-mount-stereo-mltl-using-tc9fds-2-a.html
The only solution I can think of is moving the couch to where it is symmetrically placed facing into the 90 degree wall corner, then using wall mounted speakers. The problem here is that unless the wall mounted speakers are angled 45 degrees, you're listening 45 degrees off axis.
The best solution I can think of of a modification of Xrk's wall mounted TC9FD's. You could create enclosures that match the wall angle so that the drivers are radiating on-axis to the center of the couch. I would use foam core just as Xrk uses, then use Velcro to attach the speakers to the right wall and left glass door in a symmetrical stereo triangle.
This might create the problem that you can't open your glass door if it is a sliding glass door though. So maybe the best compromise is just some slim floorstanders with the couch moved?
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/277894-flat-wall-mount-stereo-mltl-using-tc9fds-2-a.html
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Thanks for the help on this.
Charlie, those Martin Logans look really interesting. Too bad that they're out of my budget! I was actually looking at the Peerless woofers you linked to earlier. They look perfect for the job. I wish I could find a review of them.
Xaborus, I wish I could move the couch like you suggested, but there's actually a hallway just off the left side of the photograph that would be blocked
If I do go wall-mount then I think that you're right and I'll need to either build trapezoidal boxes in which the faces are angled slightly toward the center-line or use a flexible mount like you suggested.
It's a frustrating problem.
Charlie, those Martin Logans look really interesting. Too bad that they're out of my budget! I was actually looking at the Peerless woofers you linked to earlier. They look perfect for the job. I wish I could find a review of them.
Xaborus, I wish I could move the couch like you suggested, but there's actually a hallway just off the left side of the photograph that would be blocked
If I do go wall-mount then I think that you're right and I'll need to either build trapezoidal boxes in which the faces are angled slightly toward the center-line or use a flexible mount like you suggested.It's a frustrating problem.
Ok, here's a solution that's just a little off the wall (pun intended).
If you can't move the furniture (and I would think that swapping the location of the couch and chair and then mounting the tv where the picture is with speakers on each side looks like a good solution but I don't know what the rest of the room layout is and how that will affect things), perhaps you need to think about a way to move the tv and speakers instead.
So what if you mounted the tv to an articulating tv mount with smaller and perhaps thinner speakers mounted as well to the sides of the tv so that you could have the tv and speakers sit above the fireplace when not in use but also be able to pull them out in front of the sliding doors when you want to watch tv/listen to music? That's assuming most tv use occurs when the doors won't be used. Maybe you'd need to get a little creative with some mounting hardware, maybe even combine the mount with some heavy duty drawer slides so you have more range of movement.
Your tv doesn't look too big so it shouldn't be too heavy but I guess the idea may be dependent on a very solid anchoring on 1 of your walls - I would think to the right of the sliding doors.
Anyways, like I said, just a little off the wall......
If you can't move the furniture (and I would think that swapping the location of the couch and chair and then mounting the tv where the picture is with speakers on each side looks like a good solution but I don't know what the rest of the room layout is and how that will affect things), perhaps you need to think about a way to move the tv and speakers instead.
So what if you mounted the tv to an articulating tv mount with smaller and perhaps thinner speakers mounted as well to the sides of the tv so that you could have the tv and speakers sit above the fireplace when not in use but also be able to pull them out in front of the sliding doors when you want to watch tv/listen to music? That's assuming most tv use occurs when the doors won't be used. Maybe you'd need to get a little creative with some mounting hardware, maybe even combine the mount with some heavy duty drawer slides so you have more range of movement.
Your tv doesn't look too big so it shouldn't be too heavy but I guess the idea may be dependent on a very solid anchoring on 1 of your walls - I would think to the right of the sliding doors.
Anyways, like I said, just a little off the wall......
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